Pages

Thursday, November 16, 2017

In Which Elizabeth Runs Her First 10K Ever

I dragged Elizabeth with me for the Across the Bay 10K - and it was her very first 10K ever! I asked her if she wanted to write a post, so here's her experience in her own words. - Jenn

So, since I never got around to actually...training...I figured if I had a time of 1 hour and 30 minutes (barely faster than walking, I know, shut up) I'd be satisfied. I started at the same time as Jenn and Sarah (apparently you could be in any wave you wanted?), but once the crowd broke up a bit I was on my own. I did have to do a fair bit of weaving through the walkers at first, but pretty quickly got to a crowd of people going at approximately at my pace.

I made a deal with myself that I had to get halfway over the bridge before I could take a walking break, and I also used one of the port-a-pots they had at the center of the bridge, which was very strange to see but made sense, considering the bridge is almost five miles. I never would have guessed it was that long, by the way. The more you know!

I wished I hadn't made that deal with myself early on, since the entire first half is an incline, but it was gradual enough that I only ALMOST felt like death once I got to the top. I probably should have taken pictures, but it actually wasn't the best day for views, as it was overcast and grey. But! I had plenty of time to contemplate the ships floating out in the bay and the shoreline slowly coming into view through the fog, which typically doesn't happen when I'm driving over the bridge at 65 mph (Editor's note: THIS IS SPEEDING, ELIZABETH), so it was overall a positive experience.

Towards the end of the bridge my hips started to feel unhappy, which is a new phenomenon--usually my knees get sore before anything else when I run, but they felt fine! I suppose it could have had something to do with running downhill for 2 miles. At any rate, I took another walking break at the end of the bridge, and then ran the last 200 feet or so once I felt recovered. Final time was 1:29, just like I thought, woo!

OH! Towards the very end, I started hearing flute music, and sure enough, a few minutes later a gentleman passed me, who had apparently been playing the flute the whole race as he ran, I guess? He was playing one of those patriotic tunes, but I couldn't actually place it at the time, and I've now forgotten what the tune was. It was something similar to Yankee Doodle, though.

Artist's rendering.

Thanks again to Jenn for getting me to sign up for this. I am far too lazy to run otherwise, especially for anything longer than 5K.